JL Dutaut

  • Profile: Andy Buck

    I pass through the glass doors of a tall building in deepest East London and a beaming Andy Buck springs out of a chair. “Hello!” he cries. “I got here early on my motorbike.” Like his choice of transport – in reality a moped – I soon learn Buck’s main concern is not certainty, but…

    5.00 Nov. 5th, 2019 | Features

  • How to speak to young people about the future

    The ‘raising aspirations’ discourse is dead, and I’m happy to have played a small part in its demise. Over the last decade, a barrage of empirical evidence has shown that few young people in the UK hold ‘low’ or ‘no’ aspirations, or that these are meaningfully linked to their educational attainment and wider outcomes. Seeing…

    5.00 Nov. 4th, 2019 | Opinion

  • Turnaround MATs must look beyond short-term gains

    Inspiration Trust’s data on exclusions have shocked some, while its actions to tackle the problem have riled others. Lead trustee for inclusion, Colin Diamond explains that the true story lies beyond these emotive responses Dame Rachel de Souza, CEO of Inspiration Trust (IT), made waves last week when she revealed the trust’s fixed-term exclusion rate…

    5.00 Nov. 3rd, 2019 | Opinion

  • In praise of the humble headteacher

    Headteacher, Kate Frood has seen the education system transformed as her career has progressed. In an age of chief executives and superheads, she argues something valuable will be lost along with the one-school-one-head model As an experienced head with almost 40 years’ experience in education, I find myself in many meetings these days where I…

    5.00 Nov. 2nd, 2019 | Opinion

  • Jon Hutchinson's top edu-blogs of the week, 28 October 2019

    Challenge beyond Bloom’s @adamboxer1 When, in the thirteenth century, Aquinas rediscovered the works of Aristotle, he referred to him simply as “the Philosopher”, such was the comprehensive nature of his genius. I wonder whether two thousand years from now education faculties will refer to Adam Boxer as simply “the Teacher”, with blogposts like this one…

    5.00 Nov. 2nd, 2019 | Reviews

  • Book review: The Educated Guess

    Do you know how a fridge works? Think carefully before answering. Most people say yes, but when tested we realise we don’t know very much at all. We mistake basic familiarity with understanding. This is one of the many ‘thinking biases’ explored in The Educated Guess, a book designed to make us aware of our…

    5.00 Nov. 3rd, 2019 | Reviews

  • Change management lessons for education policy makers

    As our system continues to struggle to improve the achievement of learners from poorer backgrounds, Mel Ainscow argues the ‘what works’ mantra is symptomatic of a failure to grasp the complexities of change management This month, another school in England has been rapped for off-rolling in the full knowledge, and with the support, of its…

    9.22 Oct. 24th, 2019 | Opinion

  • The computer science revolution needs processing power

    The new computing curriculum in England regards computer science in exactly the same way as the more familiar natural sciences. This is an ambitious recoding of the curriculum, says NCCE chair Simon Peyton Jones, but do we have the capacity to deliver it? Ask yourself this: why do we invite every child to learn elementary…

    12.16 Oct. 23rd, 2019 | Opinion

  • Book review: The Teacher’s Guide to Research

    At the heart of Jonathan Firth’s book is the premise that “research is a key part of teacher professionalism”. All good research questions its own assumptions, and The Teacher’s Guide to Research tips its hat to that by opening, somewhat rhetorically, on a question. Firth asks: if education is not informed by research, then what…

    5.05 Oct. 20th, 2019 | Reviews

  • Kate Owbridge's top edu-blogs of the week, 14 October 2019

    How to grow a school    @PTE_Campaign Mark Lehain, the director of Parents and Teachers for Excellence, takes time out from the Tory Party conference to visit MEA Central, a new secondary in Levenshulme, Manchester. I don’t blame him, I’d take time out of any party conference to visit a school! I got a sense…

    5.18 Oct. 19th, 2019 | Reviews

  • Profile: Loic Menzies

    An 11-year-old Loic Menzies made a choice many parents completing secondary school applications this month would struggle to support. As his time at Newham Croft primary in Cambridge ended, he chose to forego the nearby and well-reputed Parkside and Comberton schools to attend the more distant and (at the time) more challenging Chesterton Community College.…

    5.12 Oct. 22nd, 2019 | Features